Archive for February, 2009

Hey guys! This will be an official post for every month from now on. We will tell you what game deserves a award for almost any catagory. So I hope you enjoy this!

Action Game- iDracula

iDracula definitely deserves action game for February. In less than a week, iDracula shot up the iTunes charts to #1. The graphics and gameplay define iDracula. It will get your blood pumping very quickly. There also are vampires, who doesn’t like that? Get it!

Wordfu is butt kicking game. It combines a kung fu theme with a word game. Wordfu is a solid game to pick up whenever you have time and it includes a truck load of cool achievements. Get this game if you like kung fu and word games:) Made by Ngmoco. Wordfu Link

Adventure Game- Little Red Sled

Little Red Sled is just a very catoony, and excellent racing game made by Imangi Studios, the guys and gals that brought you Imangi and Imangi Word Squares. You race down a slope and try to avoid obstacles like evil bunnies and jump off ramps to score big points. This will bring back memories of you racing down hills, so that might even make Little Red Sled worth it. Get Little Red Sled

Puzzle Game- Zen Bound

I’ve already told you guys how good Zen Bound. If you haven’t read it yet goHere. It’s so good it doesn’t deserve 5 stars, it deserves how many stars that are in our galaxy. Zen Bound is worth the $4.99 and by the time next year rolls around, it will have almost every award possible. I’m serious. Zen Bound Link

Developer of the Month/Publisher of the Month- Secret Exit and Chillingo

Here is more props for the creators of Zen Bound, Secret Exit. They deserve this 100% with their game Zen Bound. If you don’t have Zen Bound, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you could only have one game, Zen Bound would be a sure choice for me. Congrats Secret Exit on this unbelievable game and thanks to Chillingo for publishing it!

This week has been very busy and exciting with the releases of apps like Zen Bound and Sway. Many other mentionable games that were releases were Alpine Racer by Namco, Wordfu by Ngmoco, and Light Riders by Ds Media Labs. All of those games are very good quality, so check those out if you can.

One of the most anticipated games of 2009 has just been released a couple days ago. And that game would be Zen Bound. Zen Bound has gotten a lot of hype even before it was released because the devs, Secret Exit, really amazed us with a stunning preview video of it. When Zen Bound came out, I immediately downloaded it. It then became an instant favorite for me.

Zen Bound is a game where you don’t have to set high scores, but rather a game in where you can play at your own pace and to sit back and take your shoes off. So the main gameplay is that you paint wooden objects by wrapping them around with rope. Although that might sound simple, don’t be fooled. Zen Bound is actually a very challenging game. But every puzzle is solvable if you use that big brain of yours. Many of the puzzles are based off an animal, but later puzzles are simple geometric shapes. There are currently 51 puzzles in Zen Bound that are categorized in Tree of Reflection and Tree of Challenge.

The controls couldn’t get any simpler. You drag your finger on the screen to rotate the object, use two fingers to spin the object, and tilt your device to adjust the rope direction. If you hear a bell chime when your trying to wrap a wooden object you have painted enough to pass the level. To go on just tie your rope to the glowing nail to advance to another puzzle. You can still go on though. If you hear two more chimes after the first, that will tell you that you’ve reach the maximum goal.

The great thing about the levels in Zen Bound are that they hang off a tree, which is pretty cool and creative. Flowers blossom on the tree after each completed level. Up to three flowers can blossom after a level for three bell chimes. If you get enough flowers for each set of levels, you’ll be able to move on to harder and more complex levels in Zen Bound. Lanterns will light up the branches above once you have reached enough flowers.

The graphics and music in Zen Bound are some of the finest quality I’ve ever seen on the iPhone. The graphics really adapt well with the theme and makes you never want to take your eyes off. I’m serious, it’s like your eyes are literally glued onto your iPhone or iPod with hot glue! These graphics complement the controls very well and make the gaming experience and atmosphere feel comfortable and extraordinary.

The music is also very splendid. The soundtrack in Zen Bound is by “Ghost Monkey”. There is no singing, just calm and soothing sounds that will make you fall fast asleep like a one month year old baby. If you want to experience music that will transport you to a different realm, I suggest you wear your headphones. The music will envelope your whole mind with many binaural sounds and make you avoid all your surroundings. You can sit in front of a plane and you’ll probably won’t even hear it!

Zen Bound is easily one of the top games on the iPhone to date. I guarantee you that this game will soon be #1 on iTunes before you know it. Everything is just flawless and executed perfectly. The music, graphics, gameplay, and even the icon. Definitely get this gem because it will be the most fun you’ve ever had on the iPhone by far.

6 STARS OUT OF 5

Zen Bound is developed by the folks that brought you Spin (Secret Exit) and published by Chillingo, the guys that also brought you iDracula, Orions, Sneezies, and Vector Tanks.

Price: $4.99

MB: 37.8

Released: February 24, 2009

Get Zen Bound, the winners of multiple awards such as EXCELLENCE IN 3D in the IMGA Awards 2009:HERE

Jiggle Balls is not your average iPhone app. It’s a very unique app that basically allows what the title says, jiggle balls.

In Jiggle Balls, you use the accelerometer to move around your circular balls. Whenever you tilt your device, the balls will respond to the type of gravity active. If you click the little “i” in the upper right hand corner, it will bring up some options. You can adjust the gravity to either slight, low, normal, high, or extreme.

If you tap the screen multiple times, you will make more balls appear. Every time you do this, it will make a little sound. Tired of seeing just one color? Well you can choose more colors like red, green, blue, white, and my favorite, Pyschedelic.

I know Jiggle Balls is a very simple app, but it still needs many improvements. The developers, Funky Visions should really consider adding different backgrounds other than black and allow combinations of colors to be on the screen. Also it wouldn’t hurt if they added a couple more sounds. Overall Jiggle Balls is pretty good time waste, but will get a boring after a while. Jiggle Balls gets a modest 3.5 out of 5.

I’m a big Tower Defense (TD) game fan. I’ve been playing it on my computer for a few years now. Ever since I got my iPod Touch, I’ve been playing more TD than ever before because it’s really fun to play on a touch screen. There are a ton of TD games out there for the iPhone/iPod Touch, but I wanted to review a more recent one, so I chose geoDefense.

This game plays a lot like most TD games. You have a path and towers to place near the path. You have creeps or bad guys that travel along the path. If they get to the end they steal a life from you. Your towers shoot down the creeps to stop them from getting to the end. Tower Defense in a nut shell. But geoDefense offers some unique towers that stand out from the rest. There are 5 different tower types; Blaster, Laser, Missile, Shock and Vortex. The blaster tower is basically a gun tower that fires fast. The laser tower shoots a long laser beam with medium speed. The missile tower is high powered, but slow. The shock tower does no damage , but it slows the creeps down for a short time. The vortex tower is especially different. It gathers the debris from destroyed creeps and makes other towers more powerful for a short period of time. Each tower can be leveled up to increase the amount of damage they do. You can level each tower up to 7 times. The game includes 30 maps; 10 easy, 10 medium and 10 hard.

So what’s great about this game? Almost everything! The graphics are so amazing you need to see them on your iDevice, as the screenshots don’t do it justice. There are fireworks, explosions and particals flying everywhere. The game play is very challenging, but super fun. Every map is it’s own puzzle that you have to figure out. The sounds included are perfect for the game and sound good. There is no background music, but you can play your iPod tunes in the background without trouble. If you get a call or need to shut the game down, it will save your progress.

What’s not so great? Well, the only thing I can say here is that I’d love to see more content. And, the high scores are a bit small and hard to read. The creeps are also a little small and a little tough to see, and they move fast.

My overall impression of geoDefense: This is one supurb game! The graphics are amazingly beautiful, it’s highly polished and hard to put down. The gameplay is challenging and it really makes you think about where your are going to place your towers. You can’t be slow either, you have to think on your toes! This game is also very cost effective at $0.99 cents, so stop what you are doing and get it now! Thanks go out to the developer, David Whatley, for bringing us this wonderful strategy gem.

I happen to spot this sheep abduction game on the forum and
decided to try it out. This game is currently on sale now at $2.99.
The price will go up in the first week of march.

The story of this game goes like this: aliens from Planet Zurq 340
is dying because they lack of water. In order to communicate with humans
in a polite manner, they decide to place and move sheep to chew on crops
to form signals so that humans can see they need help. The story sounds like
the movie “signs”.

This game is entertaining in the sense that you need to focus using the
accelerometer and pick up beam enhancers so that you can beam the sheep
up and move them to their destinated locations. Though it sounds easy,
you do need to use alot of practise. You can suck 2-3 sheep at 1 time depending on your skill.

Sometimes the sheeps are going to be killed by wolves or vultures and you
need to pick up a deadly laser so you as the alien can protect the sheep.
Never heard of kind aliens, have you? Maybe this game will make aliens sound kind enough.

There is also a clock ticking to remind you of the time you have left.You can
pick up clocks to delay the time.

Failure to complete the mission will end up like the screenshot below. Cute
screenie.

I will rate this game 4 out of 5 stars because the game play is fun though it is a simple game. Country music is played throughout the game because of the farm game setting. If you like sheep, you definitely will love this game.

Monkey Bash by MegaTouch is a spank that monkey and see how far it flies game. The rules of this game is very simple. Simply spank that naughty monkey and see how it flies in the sky.

The monkey will hit banana peels, ramps and trampolines in the process and that momentum will enable to make that monkey fly more further.
You just need to watch out for barrels that will impede your progress though.

Initially, I thought it was not so fun. But as you try a few times, you will
get addicted for sure as the crave to beat your own high score gets the better
of yourself.

This game is a definitely must-get. It is only $0.99 with great graphics and
great sounds. My highest score is 265.83 yards.

Included in the game is leaderboard. You can compete among people online for highest scores. How does that sound? Great huh.

Remember to spank that monkey and you will not be caught for animal cruelty as it is just a game. No animals are harmed in this playing of this game. 🙂

I’m pretty sick of color matching games on the App Store, but Dapple has revived my feeling of them. Dapple is a color matching game with a very good twist from Streaming Colour Studios. You make matches by mixing paints around you to form new colors. For example if you have the color yellow by a green, the yellow color will mix into a green and form a match. In order to get a match you have to get a match of four or more.

At first you might not know how to play Dapple, but this game gives you many tips and hints so you’ll know how to play it in no time. Once you know how to play Dapple, it can be very fun and addictive like cocaine.

There are a variety of modes in Dapple. If you want to relax you should choose the “Classic” mode. If you want a little challenge try “Timed”. Or if you have a friend both of you should try the 2 player mode. If your colorblind, no fear as you can change the colors to more suitable ones in the options.

The thing you have to watch out in Dapple is the brown paint. If you have too much of it, it can quickly end your game. But the good thing is that you use other colors to take out the brown paint. There are also powerups in Dapple. If you see a raindrop on the board, you can use it to eliminate large groups of colors. To use the raindrop you simply have to match it will another color. The other special item is a diamond. If you match it up, it will eliminate all the paint squares of the same color.

The soundtrack in Dapple is one of the best I’ve ever heard. It’s very soothing and would make anyone fall asleep(literally). The graphics are sharp,colorful, and easy on the eyes. Another great thing about Dapple is that it will keep track of your personal high scores.

Overall Dapple is one of the best color matching games on the app store. I know the price( $4.99) might seem a little steep, but you’ll definitely not regret if you buy it. If you have questions about Dapple, I suggest you tweet OwenGoss or email him at info@streamingcolour.com.

Momo is a note-taking app by MK HQ. It works like a memo or notes taking app which can synch to the web.

Here are my first impressions of this app. I tried creating 2 notes by keying by adding a new note using the far right notepad icon.

It also allow adding pictures to the memos. Just click on the camera icon.

However, I find when emailing notes with images, only the note without the image gets sent to my email.

However, there is no issue synching notes with images. This works perfectly.

You can sort the momo notes by its tags. You can add different tags to each note. You can also email the developer from the app when you hit problems with usage of the app. I see this a welcome feature.

Other than that, you can also lock your notes inside the app with a passcode to prevent others from viewing your private notes.